Genocide: What is behind irrational evil perpetrated by ordinary people?

By HELGA VIEIRCH
Updated: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:42:06 UTC

It is just religion? I don't think so. I doubt it is even the most important problem. Why, even in the case of the Holocaust, there is a profound indoctrination into a belief system involved, certainly, but it is not purely religious. It is also racist, and to some extent sexist. But these are such small and common - even overused words.

Human brutality en masse- once unleashed, especially supported by a belief in the inhumanity of those being killed, is almost unimaginable.

I was deeply saddened by this documentary, and was struck by the fact that it is not religion, but ANY ideological indoctrination that designates certain parts of their population as expendable.

Genocide is the worst of all forms of human coordinated violence. And, as this documentary illustrates, genocide is not due to ethnic or religious antagonisms. Rather, they are planned and meticulously prepared and orchestrated events. The instigators are usually a small group of men in leadership positions. And they set it up by tapping into prejudices that are already widespread in the population. Even a region populated by multiple ethnic and/or religious groups, with peaceful co-extence, even intermarriage and friendships between such groups, can be manipulated into explosions of almost unimaginable brutality and cruelty.

Does anyone here want to discuss what is really behind these kinds of events?

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